September 26Th: Community Hot Topics!

[Jahadaya]

Every comment is a wall o' text... Anyway - Mastery rewards definitely should be a thing. Every time you go up in mastery rank you should ATLEAST get a badge...(maybe a syandana or some armor too ;D)

[Neocyberman]

Currently, how mastery ranks operate, they are little more than a brag tag that grants you some more trades a day and a few weapons.

 

I REALLY do want Focus to be heavily reliant on Mastery. Make it something to strive for, make it something that directly affects your overall abilites, make it something that, especially us veteran players who aren't current maximum mastery, players will want to complete.

 

Perhaps this can be as simple as adding 17 focus points at Rank 17?

Slots.

 

I'll be honest. I have incredibly distaste for warframes pricing model. I won't go further into it but it is related to what I have to say next.

 

Slots are entirely important to gameplay and they absolutely need platinum to unlock. Some platinum is given to the player at the creation of an account but going forward players have to choose between experiencing new guns and frames at the expense of throwing away guns that often took more than just credits to attain.

 

Mastery is a system that can totally applied to the existing system and reward players for sticking around and ranking up their weapons instead of ranking them up to better justify selling them back when you run out of space.

[Othergrunty]

Events:

I'm a bit sad that Operation Slingstone is not included in the list, but just falls under "others". It was the first big event DE has created with special objectives, having to craft usable items first and according to Steve was also the first event that players could potentialy lose.

 

While Gradivus was so far the most "epic" in scale, it was also quite polarizing. The choices felt dumb and i stay to that opinion. Why decide for one side? Why not play both against another and snatch away those Tenno cryo pods while they are distracted. Would have made a lot more sense.

 

Have to agree that Cryotic Front was so far the most fun event.

 

 

Mastery rewards:

I always liked the idea of mastery rank giving access to weapon upgrade blueprints which could turn lower tier Tenno/Neutral weapons into mid to high tier versions falling somewhere between the regular and prime version.

Not for every level. More like milestones.

Said versions looking identical to the regular version but having fixed silver elements resembling prime weapons, but less blinged because they are made by the more humble Tenno. Also skins are easier to make, so it would be more economical for DE.

 

Come to think of it. A bit like the Omage type weapons in Ratchet and Clank.

 

Let's call them master crafted, because the idea is that these are hand crafted improved versions.

 

For example. For mastery 4 you gain the Master Crafted Braton blueprint. With this blueprint you can take a level 30 Braton and use 8 orokin cells to turn it into said master version. This Braton would then have a black (changable) case and silver decoration painting, in combination with higher stats.

 

These weapons could then serve as a bit of a status symbol related to mastery, while being practical and giving low tier weapons a comeback.

 

A fun twist could be that the higher the mastery is, the stronger the improvements on the weapon but also the lower the base version.

 

For example as mentioned above mastery 4 gives the Master Braton. Because the Braton is a solid rifle that can carry you through mid rank. Meanwhile mastery 12 could give you the blueprint for the Master Lato, because the Lato is pretty weak. The Lato resulting from this enhancement however could then rival the Magnus in terms of damage and crit rate.

 

Turning a joke into a status symbol that can carry you through later stages. But the way to those would be long.

 

I admit this idea has many flaws, but it's worth thinking about.

Edited September 27, 2014 by Othergrunty

[Archwizard]

At last, we finally come to the discussion of what makes Nekros such a figure of debate.

 

The problem with Nekros is threefold:

 

First, Desecrate seals Nekros into a non-combat niche; it is the only ability that directly affects the metagame. Only a few people want to lose Desecrate, because nobody wants to lose the opportunity to see more loot - and it is of course completely inconceivable that drop tables could be adjusted instead to compensate. As long as drop tables can be altered by players mashing one button over and over, there will be demand for someone to be mashing that button over and over. However - and with full respect to Scott and the rest of the development team, as I expect this will be seen as overstepping my bounds - this is awful design. The skill enforces the idea that one player in each farming or Survival group must make it their job to stand in the back of the room and mash one button repeatedly to counteract the invisible force of RNG so that everyone else can have fun, rather than actually playing the game and having fun themselves. While playing a Nekros, especially on a Survival or Defense map, it is not uncommon to spend the majority of the mission either in the casting animation for Desecrate (alleviated only by Natural Talent, if you've got it), or running between piles of corpses that everyone else made for you to clean up (Embers and Rhinos of the world, this is you).

The worst part is that the ability runs entirely on layers of RNG - Does it drop a health orb this cast? Does it reroll the loot table? What else drops from the loot table? - which compels players to keep using it, not because it's working but because it isn't. Because of the RNG element, it is often likely that even if you're focusing on one corpse, you'll never make it drop anything before it disappears (even if you dump the entire energy pool into it).

To Sheldon's Bucket Argument (which I prefer to call Conservation of Power): should it really apply if the affected system was conceptually flawed to begin with? Reliance on RNG is acceptable in areas that prevent gameplay from getting too repetitive (such as tiles or enemy spawns), but Desecrate makes Nekros' gameplay very repetitive because of its unreliable results. What Nekros needs is either a buff for Desecrate to ALWAYS work (so you have time to do anything else), or a baseline buff to drop tables and a total replacement for Desecrate (the far better solution, to pull Nekros out of the niche and focus on his gameplay rather than metagaming).

 

TL;DR: Desecrate makes Nekros a janitor, not the advertised necromancer. People want Nekros for mods and O2 packs, not compelling gameplay.

 

Second, and (half) the reason why Desecrate has the lowest votes in the poll above, is that his other three "necromantic" abilities are fairly poor overall.

Shadows of the Dead - which has gobs of scaling damage potential and should be the center of the necromancer's arsenal - is instead used as a form of snap aggro-drop and CC because of the poor AI. It also requires that players keep a mental note of every enemy they kill, or even ignore enemies for being 'too weak' for their purposes - and often can't be cast at all, because it's the only skill that actively encourages you to steal killing blows and penalizes you for failing to. 

Terrify locks players out of casting it until all affected enemies are killed - and then makes those enemies disappear. Yes, Chaos locks players out of using it repeatedly too, but the effect practically cycles itself as long as enemies are affected, just like Vauban's or Hydroid's CCs; if you need to cast Terrify again, you have to hide, wait for it to end, and pray the guys you needed to fear the second time (because of the target cap) don't find you. As a CC, it's a 75 energy skill with the limitations of a 2nd skill; while it may seem like the armor-reduction counters this, the reduction only affects one faction and barely increases damage on its own even at maximum Power Strength - whereas every other source of armor reduction can be stacked over 100% on their own.

Soul Punch is just a gimmick. It's frustrating to cast, it has weak/nigh-invisible/intractable AoE, it only provides a single-target stun as level increases, it adds nothing to Nekros' arsenal - yet it exists anyway, because it has a funny name. If there was one ability on any frame that I'd want removed from the game entirely, it's Soul Punch.

 

I've gone into more depth in one of my own threads recently, which I'll spoiler below in an effort to reduce the wall of text.

 

I firmly believe the only solution to grant Soul Punch any legitimacy is just to replace the gimmick entirely. It was the first and, prior to Smite, the only instant-damage skill that required you to stop and directly aim at an enemy (even Freeze can be quick-fired, or aimed ahead of a distant target), which has always slowed down gameplay considerably (and is self-defeating as a 'quick' damage tool). The AoE the effect provides has always been negligible, since the secondary projectile remains hard to see. Even when first released, the sole benefit this effect provided was armor-ignoring damage - which Slash Dash and Pull also shared, but with considerable AoE and/or bonus mobility to spare. Without the armor-ignore, this amounts to a single-target ragdoll, maybe with some rare but very minor splash damage. Consider that Smite now allows the caster to knock down the target like Soul Punch, for the same targeting condition (which mind you, I still hate, especially in a Paladin's hands) and damage, but with more reliable AoE and the ability to proc Confuse and Weaken on enemies. There is simply no comparison, and nothing even remotely redeemable about Soul Punch worth saving.

People consider Nekros to be a support frame, which I will grant. So why does he have a sniping skill, where a summation or cornerstone of his skillset should be?

 

Terrify's main issue is that it completely locks you out of casting the ability (in no small part because of its central "Fear" effect), giving it an enforced targeting cap; note that I say the cap itself is not the main issue, since removing the lockout would only enforce the cap on a per cast basis. This could be solved by removing the Power In Use, or even just by making it a toggle instead. A slow effect would be nice, but even still isn't mandatory if you don't feel like you have to shoot your targets the moment they turn around (which is the whole point of a CC - breathing room, making the enemies less of an immediate threat to your allies and especially you, the epicenter of fear).

As an aside, the armor reduction is essentially useless. As I've linked several times, my math on it has shown that it caps out at 6% actual bonus damage at max rank (and only 15% with Power Strength), and even then, only against armored Grineer targets (I'd say "or Tenno", but Stalker and whatever player is stabbing me in the face would die laughing at the notion of being hit by Terrify).

 

Shadows, I still have high hopes for. Steve has stated that they are working on adding a way to give your Kubrow basic commands, and if that ends up being outside of the modding system and in the actual missions, could very well be applied to the Shadows too. Historically, the fact that Shadows have copied our enemies' "smart" AI has simply made them incompetent pets, little better than Chaos targets, where "stupid" Infested have proven much more useful given their aggressive bloodhound tendencies. The ability to coordinate them - and dare I say, tell them to ignore cover? - is simply delicious, given that the real potential of the necromantic component is the ability to make minions scale their damage to your targets.

Let's step away from the AI for a moment though; that still leaves the requirement for you to get killing blows on your targets, which you likely won't be doing quite as much of without any significant damage skills (especially if you spend most of the mission Desecrating). In addition to this, you're required to keep a mental checklist of the enemies you killed, making it significantly more involved than any other ultimate. Shadows would see more usage if the "Soul Cache" were phased out, perhaps substituting the latest party kills instead, or even the nearest corpses (provided the minion cap is removed or otherwise considered). While these would reduce the element of choice, attempts to capitalize on your ability to select specific minions required that you be picky about the battles you join and leave out minor enemies. 

There's been a long-standing suggestion to have minions raised also gain a certain number of levels. This is an easily understandable suggestion; Corpus and Grineer weapons have stats to kill one another rather than themselves. A small boost would allow risen minions to overcome their native defenses and become a more potent fighting force rather than simply a pocket Chaos. While this may not be necessary with the ability to direct minions, it would absolutely make Shadows worthy of its space as an ultimate with or without coordination.

 

Third, Nekros' abilities don't work well together at all. His three CCs supplement each other only insofar as you can cast one while another is on cooldown; meanwhile, all three scatter enemies, making it more difficult to use Desecrate. While two of his skills rely on having a kill count, none of his skills facilitate getting one as level increases. Tying back into Reason #1, Desecrate is only affected by Power Range, a stat it only shares with Terrify - which also has a hard target limit, thereby making it useless if you throw on Overextended to maximize Desecration.

Ideally, a necromancer's arsenal would involve summoning up minions to fight for him, spraying enemies with debuffs and lifedrains to wear them down and increase ally/minion output, and using a little CC to keep enemies off of the caster himself (or to lock them down while they are eaten by zombies). A black mage who supports himself by crippling others and bending their broken bodies to his will.

Nekros... is nothing like that, which I will grant was part of the point with trying to give him Warframe's unique stamp, but it stripped him of much of what makes the necromancer an appealing class to play in games in favor of having one class who could be the Frost of Survivals.

 

As a combination of these factors, you will likely see many players defend Desecrate to their graves; players will say anything to make sure their on-demand (rare) loot stays on-demand. This is an expected side-effect of giving players that extra gamble - they don't have any control over RNG, but they trick themselves into believing they do. It's like hooking a dead frog up to a potato battery and telling a child they have the power of life and death because they can make it walk. Except in this case, that's what we're literally supposed to do.

Edited October 2, 2014 by Archwizard

[Angius]

What are your favorite types of cosmetic items? (can choose more than one)

 

Attachments, alt helmets, sentinel cosmetics and Kubrow cosmetics.

I mean, you can only intoduce finite amount of colours. They will repeat once and once again. I don't think, that we need more palettes, than we have now, they cover pretty much all the colours you may ever want.
Now alt helmets, Syandanas and armour pieces are different, you can unleash your fantasies with them and create everything. And mi and match them as you please, changing your frame's looks significantly. Same goues for Sentinel attachments.

As for Kubrow cosmetics, I hope for some armour. Sure, more patterns, more colours, blah blah, but I'd like to make an armoured machine of destruction out of my Kubrow. And I need a cool looking armour for that.

 

 

What suggestions do you think would improve the Login Reward system? (can choose more than one)

 

Rewards that scale better, that's for sure. I mean, right now you have better chances of getting 75% off from a 1-star reward, than from 3-star one!

As for the "other" answer I picked (I'm honesly suprised, that it is not in the poll!) - make the rewards (except plat discounts maybe) be sent to you via in-game mail. That way you can claim your XP packs whenever you need and it would not be wasted on your 8-forma mk-1 Strun.

 

 

Should there be rewards for completing mastery ranks?

 

Yes, for all MR tests. Let it be something small, like a simple Syandana, or a colour palette, Lato skin, maybe even a set of rare mods or fusion cores, 50k credits, stuff like that, and a potato or a slot every 5 ranks. That should be a good deal, I think.

 

 

Should Mastery Rank influence more things in game?

 

Yes. Hell yes, I'd even say. We need more things to be MR-locked - planets, weapons, nodes, keys, all this stuff, so we won't see a MR0 players on Cerberus, running around with Boltors Prime. Right now, besides few weapons, MR is completely useless, and people with rank 0 starter gear can get to Outer Terminus or T4 Survival if they want. That should not be possible.

 

 

Which Nekros abilities need a revision? (can choose more than one)

 

SotD. Definitely. The Shadows are incredibly dumb an not worh it. It's better to go full Desacrate build (probably the only viable Nekros build tat exists) than to bother with them. They should follow Nekros like bodyguards, they should have increased stats (preferably scalable with Power Strength) and should stop shooting walls. Or being stuck 5 rooms behind Nekros, because they are apparently a stationary skill. MAYBE then, some 5% of Nekros players would consider switching from Desacrate spam to private army. But I doubt it, at least unless the RNG won't be fixed (honestly, do Neural Sensors even exist?)

 

 

What do you like most in an event? (can choose more than one)

 

Lore. Everyone likes it, and every game needs it. Nuff said.

Rewards. Usually some fancy cool weapon, sometimes a mastery feeder like Sheev. But well, it's free, potatoed and comes with a slot.

New mechanics. Warframe desperately needs more diversity, and new mechanics are certainly a good way to introduce it.

Killing stuff.

 

 

What do you like least in an event? (can choose more than one)

 

Repeating the same thing over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Well, I pretty much described the whole game with that one sentence, but I digress. Anybody remembers Gradivus Dilemma? We needed to complet what, like 100 Invasion missions? That started to get boting after 5th one, frustrating after 15th and infuriating after 30th.

Take the Cryotic Front now. You could finish it in many runs if you wanted, or you could just sit tight for 1-2 long runs and get it over with. That's a good design.

Oh, and playing the same tileset over, and over, and... Ahem. Yeah, that's a bad thing too. Repetitivnesss in general.

 

 

What is your favourite event?

 

Cryotic Front. You feel like it, you have a good team and good gear? You can finish it in one run. You are a weaker player? You can do it step by step. Great design, great idea, great execution. The best event so far, the only one that was not extremely grindy (well, not counting Fusion MOA event maybe)

 

 

In your opinion, are you more concerned about Mod Drop Tables or Prime Gear Parts?

 

Definitely Prime Gear. To get mods you can just jump into a mission and kill enemies untill they drop something.

For Primes, you need to acquire a key (RNG), then finish the mission, and then you may get the part you want, or you may get a 10th goddamn T2 Capture (RNG).

That's a random chance for having a random chance of getting what you want. It's like winning the possibility of participating in lottery on another lottery. Sounds dumb, right?

[Neocyberman]

I'm deeply concerned that the last question does not have a both option. As if to say that working on one depreciates the need to work on another. I selected mods because those affect the game on a larger scale but both need reworking. Mod drops are greatly diluted by warframe ability mods which are useless if you don't have the frame and not very useful even if you have it.

[-GM-Cha_Dude-]

This. This. This. DE pls, I need dis

Matchmaking should be more mastery rank focused. I don't see why newbies would like to play with ''pros'' only to get their kills stolen. Veterans also dislike seeing noobs in their PUG games. Newbies learn from each others, they won't learn anything when they have to leech most of the games with veteran in them.

 

Remove the crap from Void drop tables already. If I do T1 capture, for example, I do it to get the Prime parts from it, not for other keys. Also rewards from each missions should have an equal chance of dropping (for example, T2 capture has 6 different rewards, all those rewards should have a 1/6 chance of dropping).

[Drlathe]

The only event I can say I actually enjoyed was the survival one. As a rule though, I prefer the events where ONE good run makes you win.

[Metalarcher]

All right, from the top...

 

Accessories:

 

Meh. Cool things to be sure, but not overly important. I like syndanas because they add just enough flair to a Warframe without making it seem crowded (as armor often does), and I like color palettes because getting the perfect color is very important to making a Warframe look just right.  The others are somewhat secondary, as I prefer to focus on customizing the Warframe itself, rather than smaller aspects of it or different entities.

 

Login Rewards:

 

A reward is not ever appreciated if it does nothing. Even credits would be more enjoyable than the XP rewards I keep getting; credits can at least in theory be used, whereas the XP for my fully-ranked sentinels will never, in theory or practice, be used. Same goes for blueprints of items you would only ever need to build once, but if you sold the blueprints without making them (i.e. they are not in your inventory) the system should have a contingency for that, such that it will not prevent you from getting that blueprint ever again just because you got it (and sold it) once.

 

Mastery Rank:

 

As for the Mastery Rank test rewards, it would be nice if we got unique trophy weapons or items from completing them, to show off our progress (perhaps even in the dojo, through unlockable decorations for the trophy hall, to finally give it some use).

 

As for the Mastery Rank restriction, I don't think it's really a necessary mechanic, but if it's going to stay there (and I can't imagine it won't) it may as well have some use. Mastery rank may be an appropriate way to lock more advanced or unique weapons, Warframes, etc. behind experience walls (actual experience, not in-game affinity) so there is some kind of learning and power curve. However, this should be done with moderation, and I'm not sure how I feel about certain weapons being locked behind very high mastery ranks. Ideally, the system should give the player the option to choose more advanced and unique weapons (alongside other items) only when the player is ready to handle them. With that would probably come a difficulty in using said weapon, which would have to be determined (or implemented) such that the more difficult weapons are the stronger ones (higher difficulty = higher rewards).

 

Nekros:

 

A lot of people seem to think Desecrate is his best ability, and I can see why. It give him the ability to loot things twice. I think it's his worst. Each other ability focuses on CC (Soul Punch to stun one enemy, Terrify to cause many to flee, Shadows to keep other enemies busy) and while CC isn't the most interesting mechanic on its own, at least these abilities are useful.

 

Desecrate is not only useful, it is necessary, and that's a very bad thing.

 

How many Warframes do we have now, 20+ counting Primes? Why should people who want to play survival--arguably the most lucrative mode in the game--have to take one Warframe with them, and one that is heavily modded for Desecrate spam to boot? This could be argued as a problem for survival and not the ability, but it's not just for the life support. It's just as much for the loot. The aim of Warframe right now, as I see it, is to collect mods and become as strong as you possibly can be and streamline farming such that you are swimming in platinum and can have anything at the drop of the hat. Many, while they may not have thought of it in so many words, think the same thing, or at least something similar. Nekros streamlines farming better than any other Warframe because he doubles, triples, and sometimes even quadruples drops from a certain enemy. Therefore he is necessary (along with carrier, but that's another story). So players are forced to use him to "get the most" out of Warframe, both figuratively and literally. Not to mention the ability only works based on RNG, too. Imagine if we had a gun that only shot based on RNG. Would that be all right?

 

So I can see where people are confusing his most useful ability for something good simply because it is useful, when in actuality it being so useful limits the possibilities of meaningful play. Much like many things in the game, I suppose. False choice is not very often a good thing.

 

In-Game Events:

 

My favorite event was not listed, so I just picked the closest. My favorite event was the somewhat-overlooked Suspicious Shipments, in which Alad V spoke to the Tenno aboard infested corpus ships. I think they were alerts, actually. Regardless, they were the most fun for me because the enemies were given insane attack buffs, such that they were very difficult to deal with. Key word: difficult. There were exploits, sure, but the enemies we faced actually rivaled our own damage output. I could use Chaos and enemies would actually kill each other, rather than just give each other cuts and bruises! But anyway, I'm getting off-topic. The event was great because it opened an avenue of new and meaningful gameplay which could potentially be explored (and was, but alas to no end as of yet) and used to fuel overall gameplay improvement. That combined with the feeling of a challenge made it feel less like task than other events. Which brings me to my next point:

 

The worst part of events is that we are expected to complete the same tasks over and over to get rewards. Do you remember in school when your teacher asked you to take a test, and you passed, so she asked you to take it four more times? Of course you don't. You showed you were capable once with nothing but your knowledge, so why would you be required to take it even once more? This is the same principle which is not followed in the game. For example, if an event requires me to kill 100 enemies five times, why can't I just kill 500 enemies instead? Moreover, why can't those enemies be challenging me the whole way through, such that I might have to restart because the endurance of the mission is too much based on my ability to fight back? Both of these things, one-time challenges opposed to multiple trials (why do I need to "assure" the game I am able to overcome an obstacle?) and obstacles that are actually difficult to hurdle (I only feel I have achieved something if it required effort to do so), contribute to a more enjoyable experience.

 

Concentration Versus Dilution:

 

I'm concerned with all the drop tables, and the presence of drop tables to such a degree entirely. Maybe it's a necessity for the F2P status of the game, but I would argue that if that's the case you're not thinking creatively enough. The money a game is supposed to make should never come in conflict with the quality of the game. Did any of you get into game development because you wanted to make money? If so, I would suggest a more appropriate career, like stock brokering...

 

Of course that's an empty insult. I've seen and heard of how many of you behave via livestreams and word-of-mouth respectively. You care about the game, and that's why I haven't left yet. But this RNG thing? It needs to stay in slot machines, for the most part. A necessary (or almost-necessary) item should never be denied to a player because of his or her luck. Why does one waste time (punishment) for farming a mod and another get that mod (reward) after a short span of time? Apart from that, (though I might be wrong here) I would imagine there's nothing in the code that ever states that a player will eventually have to get a certain important mod (e.g. Gleaming Talon) through enough effort. If it's true RNG, they could farm forever and their chances would increase, but never to 100%.

 

So why have it at all? Because it's tempting. Surprising rewards can be satisfying, certainly. What better way to make rewards surprising than by making them random? Even the person who wrote the code couldn't know when someone would get something. But it is evenly matched by frustration. There is no sense of achievement when a mod is gotten, instead their is relief. Why not pair the two--achievement and reward? It would be more difficult, surely (difficult to make difficult, if you will), but it would help the game immensely. Perhaps we need something akin to feats, achievable through execution and careful play instead of memorization, which could be given a currency to purchase currently-difficult-to-obtain-but-necessary mods? Something of that nature. Something the player will be challenged with throughout a normal level that might result in his or her success and contribution towards gaining a mod that is desired, but also present the high probability of failure if the player does not meet the requirement. Perhaps some way for the player to influence this would be required as well, so advanced players can gain a lot of this currency at once through some nightmarish difficulty, while more causal players could simply do the easier challenges and rack up the points over time. That might be a grind, but it's a starting point.

 

Boy, that was a lot of text.

 

TL;DR (1) Desecrate forces players to play Nekros because he is the best-suited Warframe for the goal of the most players: farming. (2) Events are fun when they are challenging and do not require the player to overcome obstacles they have already proven they are capable of overcoming. (3) RNG should take a long walk off a short pier because it can fail to reward a player who has put in just as much effort as a person who was rewarded.

Edited September 27, 2014 by Metalarcher

[thatsleepyguy]

Should Mastery Rank influence more things in game?

Yes. As it is now, there is hardly any incentive at all for players to grind out tenno points for anything rank 10 or above, and I'd argue for the lower ranks as well. Yes, there are weapons that require a certain rank before use, but that requirement is less an incentive and more locking things away from the majority of people that ever try the game. Rather than limiting players that don't rank up, It'd be much better to reward those that do, with an orokin reactor or catalyst or something with each rank up.

 

Which Nekros abilities need a revision? (can choose more than one)

 

All of his powers (save desecrate) have problems. Soul punch is somewhat frustrating to aim given the requirement that the point of aim be directly on an enemy. Terrify works as intended, but having enemies run away is frustrating in many situation. The allies spawned by Shadows of the Dead are an inconvenience to teammates, as they will block shots and passages.

 

What do you like most in an event? (can choose more than one)

dominating the competition

 

 

What do you like least in an event? (can choose more than one)

What I dislike the most is the way players earn points for events. Event scoring always falls into:

-players run a simple, easy mission, with score based on the cumulative number of missions completed

-players are scored based on performance in a single mission, non-cumulative

 

The problem with the first is that it just isn't very fun at all. The problem with the second is that having a better score requires literally hours spent in a single mission. The top scores for the Survival and Cryotic Front events reflect this.

 

Ideally, event scoring should be based on a single mission's performance as in the latter, but without requiring that time = score. Time endured in a mission is certainly a reliable metric for mission performance, as enemies become progressively more powerful, but players will prolong these sessions to last an eternity. If you still want to use time as a way to score, make the difficulty ramp up much more rapidly - doing that would cut down a top score of 6 hours to 3 or fewer. Otherwise, I'd suggest finding another way to calculate score in a single mission.

 

What is your favourite event?

Survival was my favorite to play. The boatloads of enemies on screen at all times and the struggle to barely stay alive made it fun even after 2 hours spent in one mission. Gradivus is a second for the player drama.

[pokeyoface]

I feel like Mastery rank should improve the Login rewards and MAYBE increase the rare mod drop rate but that seems like really dangerous territory OR BRAINSTORM JUST HIT maybe it should help out the whole Mod Fusion process (make mods contribute to fusion more or reduce the credit cost) or maybe make the credit/resources earned from drops scale up with Mastery

[(PSN)Lord_Azden]

On the subject of mastery rank...

 

I think it'd be great if we could have a series of nodes that are unlocked by mastery rank. It could either be one node per rank or multiple (depending on the amount of manpower you have to create it). As you progress along the chain of nodes, you would gradually face stronger and stronger enemies but also gain access to better and better rewards, giving players an incentive to achieve higher mastery ranks while not forcing lower level players to fight lvl 80+ enemies before they're ready. Also, there will be no taxi-ing to any node above your mastery rank as it would defeat the purpose of having them locked.

[Monolake]

Events: please consider clans and hardcore players that run events for the leaderboards. Don't make people do the same mission for 100 times (even 15-20 times is quite a lot for casual weekend players). 

Design events so it takes more skill and teamplay to get a highscore, not just no-lfie to run the same thing all day every day for a week.

And don't gimp the players individually.  

 

And please incorporate past events in the game as quests. Many players are missing out and the game feels empty with no goal or direction, more quests and re-playable events would improve the game a lot. 

 

Some Nekros problems:

 

Soul Punch  - very awkward targeting, wild ragdolling, not a 1-hand action, joke damage. Make it 1-handed (like Volt Shock) with easier targeting and 100% blast proc - and it will be ok-ish quick CC.

Terrify - bad as it is, just making mobs run away at full speed, it also  for some unknown reason has many limits, making it  bad even for a 'panic button'

Even dog howl makes the mobs run slowly now, Ncros ability is much worse than a mere pet' auto-skill!

 

Ult is ok-ish, cast animation is way too long and filling up the stack of 'souls' to spawn can be problematic (its described better in some dedicated Nekros threads)

[Mirriky]

The Gradivus Dilemma was my favourite because of the lore and seeing the banter between alad and ruk (I want to play this event again as a quest), however the level of grind was actually painful, that was the main downside. I played this to the final reward then put it down

Operation Cryotic Front was my other favourite because it added a really fun game mode, was quite balanced, and the tileset was amazing. I got all the rewards in this event then still went back to play it because it was that much fun.

[Senketsu_]

I cant really think of what mastery rank should influence, But all I know is that it will give players more incentive to try and do them,  

[yuio678]

Mastery Rank

 

A few suggestions:

1) Void Missions are MR locked to prevent new players ending up in levels beyond their capability (e.g. Tier 4 Void)

 

2) All Prime weapons and Warframes must have an MR level higher than their normal counterparts if applicable (e.g. Boltor is MR2, so Boltor Prime is increased to at least MR4 instead of its current and quite ludicrous MR0 requirement)

 

3) In random match making, players of similar MR within a range of +2 or -2 should be matched together

 

4) Similar to how with every interval of 5 Mastery Ranks you earn an additional Drone Deployment slot, this mechanic should be applied to weapons and Warframe slots.

Every interval of 2 Mastery Ranks could offer a single weapon slot to slowly give an incentive to players to earn more weapons to expand their arsenal. However based on the current and potentially temporary trajectory of having a 30 Mastery Rank limit, this means players can only earn a maximum of 15 extra weapon slots on top of the original slots. Since Warframe has released to date far more than 15 weapons that are deserving to be kept by players, this potential method of slot expansion would not detrimentally impact monetary sales of extra weapon slots should players want more. But at the same time, this allows non-paying players an opportunity to earn more arsenal space via increasing their Mastery Rank.

As for Warframes, the same system of increasing ones inventory space via increasing their Mastery Rank could also be implemented. However since a Warframe is much more substantial in terms of gameplay importance than a single weapon, it would seem fair that a player can only earn an additional Warframe slot after every 5 Mastery Ranks like the Resource Drones. Meaning based on the current theoretical limit of Mastery Rank 30, players can ever only earn an additional 6 Warframe slots. This still leaves the player who wants all the Warframes to need to pay money for more Warframe slots, thus allowing the company to still earn income from players paying for slots.

 

So overall, tying tangible rewards (within reason to prevent negative impacts to DE's monetary income) to Mastery Ranks would place greater importance to the Mastery Ranking system in this game. This can form a system of rewarding dedicated players who experience leveling/completing all kinds of Warframe content with features that would otherwise be only accessible via real money. Obviously I'm no businessman, so based on your economical data you have of Warframe the different Mastery Rank intervals required to be appropriate with your company income/profits is definitely up to your discretion. 

Edited September 27, 2014 by yuio678

[Halisi]

Nekros: Desecrate

 The issue here is that Desecrate as it is now doesn't really fit Nekros's playstyle. All of his powers are useful but this power creates a playstyle based solely around this one power ignoring his other powers. If you blank out desecrate and only look at Nekros's other powers you would see a Warframe based around offensive utility. A cc damage power in soul punch, pure cc from terrify, and an ai army summon power ala shadows of the dead.

 

 When Desecrate is considered it's supposed to be a means to restock health/energy/ammo during battle. But instead it turns Nekros into lootframe. Frankly I'd like to see the drop rate of extra loot like oxygen/mods nerfed so that Nekros isn't centered around the one power.

 

The Void...

 What I'm "most" concerned about is the fact that the void is just normal missions in a different tileset. The problem is that the void feels tedious to people, people play the void for the prime gear not for the actual experience itself. When the void becomes an interesting activity that plays out differently every time you do it then the loot tables become less of an issue. How about adding randomized varying versions of games modes to keys like how sabotage has 2 and soon 3 variations so that the mission isn't the same every time.

 

 But along with that Void runs as a whole should feel rewarding upon completion regardless of whether or not you get that prime part you're after. Personally I don't feel that mods such as power mods should exist in this space. The void should have it's own special mod rewards similar to dark sectors dropping channeling mods. Things like mods that modify specific powers, or give out unique weapon mods that scale based on the tower you're in having better chances the higher you go. This is already done to an extent with thunderbolt, sanctuary, whirlwind, etc but needs to be expanded upon.

 

 But speaking to the prime parts trader I'd like to be able to trade prime parts for void keys, requiring more parts for higher tower keys. One of the more frustrating things about going for prime parts is running out of specific keys without having a guaranteed way to get more of the ones you need.

 

 

[WhiteCr0w]

This is bound to be missed, but certainly hope it isn't. Just want to say that I am thrilled and very grateful for this topic. The value you guys place on our feedback is so impressive, and I'm truly glad for it. DE, keep being awesome.

[GSrevolution]

Should there be rewards for completing mastery ranks?

Yes, for some of the earlier tests. In my opinion, players should not be given starting platinum. Instead, they should be given things like weapon slots, warframe slots and orokin catalysts/reactors as rewards for completing the earlier mastery rank tests. Of course, there should be a limit to how many you can get, but I'm not sure where that particular line would be drawn.

 

What do you like least in an event? (can choose more than one)

In my opinion, events that are too "grindy" are no good. Gradivus was a good example of this because you had to do 100 runs of that event mission to get all the rewards. Let the people who want high scores to compete with each other and grind, while the rest of us enjoy ourselves doing something else.

 

What is your favourite event?

My favorite event would have to be the event that introduced the survival game mode. This event was great, it had a fun new game mode AND did not require a gazillion runs to get all the rewards! Either you made it past 20 minutes, or you didn't.

 

In your opinion, are you more concerned about Mod Drop Tables or Prime Gear Parts?

Mod drop tables. When new players STILL have trouble getting mods like Hornet Strike and Serration that's a bigger issue then me getting the prime part that I want. I'd also like to say that the addition of "damaged" mods is a band-aid fix that sounded good in theory, but in execution, was not very good. Who wants to waste their time with mods that can't fuse into the normal version (to save fusion energy.) Who wants to waste their time with mods that not only cap out at a lower level but also bring reduced benefits for each level? Nobody does. I understand that these mods are meant for new players but I think we are doing them a disservice by giving them these mods and not making the real versions more reasonable to get.

 

 

I think mod drop tables and prime gear parts are both equally crap but mod drop tables are more important simply because that's the first problem you'll encounter out of the two.

[Doom_Bunny]

Lets try fast feedback(ish)

 

Cosmetics: Anything that goes on my warframe syandanas, armour, skins etc. Though I wouldn't mind having a skin for my kubrow such as a zanuka skin.

 

Login rewards: Scale to frequency definatly, I'd like to be rewarded for coming back each time.

 

Mastery rank: Yes there should be rewards for completing each mastery rank especialy arfter leveling all those weapons.

 

Mastery rank influence: This is tricky as mastery is a hard thing to obtain without a booster, I still said yes because of seeing low mastery ranks with OP guns, I feel like this allows them to just rush through the game.

 

Nekros: Shadows of the dead needs a buff since they act like canon fodder they would be more suited to a heavy frame at the moment. Nekros needs minions that would kill enemies as he isn't a dmg dealing or protected frame (low shields and armour).

 

Likes of events: NEW NEW NEW! (lore, rewards, new stuff) It's like an in-game spoiler of what DE has been doing and what we can expect to see in the future.

 

Dislikes of events: Repetitive and easily exploited by clans.

 

Favourite event: (This was a hard question) Gradivus event. It had everything; lore, rewards, and new stuff. So far it had more in depth lore then any event so far, there was also multiple new tiles to explore.  The only dislike about it was the wait for certain invasions to finish.

 

Prime gear drops: This becomes an increasing problem with every new prime and it becomes increasingly difficult to add new prime gear due to the dilution. Mods aren't so much of a worry as they mostly left in events but that isn't a long term solution.

Edited September 27, 2014 by Postal_pat

[VampirePirate]

Valkyr the Original: Valkyr should not need additional accessories.  Instead there needs to be a proto-version, meaning the way she was before being captured by Corpus and experimented on.  That would mean a new look (that may have some slight resemblances of the current Valkyr,) a new name, new and unique powers, and a new purpose as a warframe.  That would not only be fun but also would make sense in game lore.  This would also allow a suitable Prime version too, because the Valkyr as we know it could not be Primed.

 

Nekros powers?  Soul Punch is fine if it scaled up a bit to be useful in higher leveled missions or against higher leveled enemies.  Maybe there needs to be something extra added like: heals the warframe when used. (I'm assuming Soul Punch is like steal the soul of the enemies, so why not use it to heal Nekros since he is so squishy?)  Desecrate I think is fine, but it should work effectively each time it is used.  That way we don't waste energy.

 

Master Ranks: If they had more purpose than to just show off how long people have played this game or how many tests they have passed, that would be good.  What if mastery rank for the player, not weapons, affected warframes in the manner of passives or buffs that are permanent?  They may be small but will stack if other team member have them, and everyone will benefit.  Just a thought.

 

Drops:  Makes no sense at all to have rare ones and even others show up as warframe abilities.

 

1) You can remove abilities from all warframes that are new or obtained, and have the player feel rewarded when he or she finally gets a warframe mod for a drop.  That would make the game harder and more challenging, but I think people won't like this.

 

2) Remove the warframe mod drops from the drop table and put them in the market.  They will cost a certain amount of credits if a player wants to duplicate that mod and use them.  This will solve the problem with people wanted lower-ranked mods on their warframe builds.

 

3) Remove them from the drop table and allow a system were we can de-rank the warframe ability mods or rank them as we wish, so that we can make custom builds as we see fit.  This will allow great flexibility for some players.

[Guest Tehnoobshow]

Login rewards should be removed, and plat should just be made cheaper by default.

Desecrate needs to be removed.

Mastery needs to actually mean something in terms of equipment tiers.

Lore needs to be removed from the game until de actually comes up with a semi cohesive story.

[Blatantfool]

 Picking Gradivus Dilemma as the best event is required for me to take someone's opinion on events seriously.

[gnat6]

In your opinion, are you more concerned about Mod Drop Tables or Prime Gear Parts?

 

That "or" really should not be there every drop table in the game is equally screwed up

that said I voted for the mod drop tables because mods effect every part of the game and primes are just something to collect for the sake of some extra bling.

[Hybridon]

About drop tables, I made this topic today:

 

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/316017-drop-tables-how-much-longer-will-you-ignore-them-sheldon/